You know you're in for a hard time when you check the weather as you leave your house at 10am and it's already heading towards the 30 degree mark. No city does a summer heatwave quite like Adelaide, but if 2014 was going to be the last year the Big Day Out stopped by this area of the country, I didn't want to reflect on it sitting at home.

There’s always something that punters can guarantee at the Big Day Out. Regardless of what the crowd is there for, whether it is the major headliners, the big bands on smaller stages, or just the general vibe of the festival, it’s a certainty that you will never quite know what to expect on the day. And the last thing that punters were expecting at the Melbourne Big Day Out... was rain.

Hiccups leading up to something as grand as Big Day Out is nothing surprising in this market nowadays; our flagship music festival has suffered, as of late, from a growing counter-culture that loves nothing more than to criticise in an area they feel they have enough knowledge to do so; among other things of course. Despite that, it still remains that the Big Day Out – super-charged by the relatively recent restructuring of its management – excels at balancing commercial appeal with credibility, giving as much diversity as is needed to ensure people of all different tastes are given all the necessary ingredients to make for a great day out.

Big Day Out is a day of fun in the sun. In fact, it’s mostly a lot of hot, humid sun for Gold Coast. But the bands at Metricon Stadium try their best to balance it out with fun too. This year the lineup definitely achieved that and more.

The 2014 Big Day Out is less than a week away from kicking off for another year and boy, has it been an up and down ride already. With the upset pull out of Blur not that long after the initial lineup was announced, many fans were left wondering how the festival would be able to fill the Britpop icon sized gap in the slot. Instead of a one band replacement, the Big Day Out delivered three huge festival veterans to soothe the loss. Flying out from Sweden for some Australian sun are some of our favourite suit-donning party animals, The Hives.

Ever since they were announced on the Big Day Out lineup, fans have been waiting for announcements on their sideshows. And now that time has arrived. Playing Sydney are the Deftones, Melbourne will get a The Hives sideshow while Ghost will play both Sydney and Melbourne. Check out the dates and details here:

Another year, another Southbound Festival and despite predictions of the opposite, attendance was up on last year, with the vast majority of the attendees opting to camp on site for the weekends festivities. Though this years line-up may not have been at its most buzz-worthy, it was still a fine collection of acts over the two days, with just enough variety to keep everybody happy.